July 19 :     Foreign minister Jaswant Singh today asserted that ?international mediation is not an answer to Kashmir?. Asked on BBC?s Hardtalk whether US President Bill Clinton?s role in the Kargil issue amounted to mediation, Singh replied that Washington?s statement asking Islamabad to get the intruders out of India came only after Sharif had rushed to the US facing certain defeat at the hands of Indian forces. ?The main point is for Pakistan to understand that it cannot force a resolution (of the issue).... It has to come to terms with history,? the foreign minister said, asserting that the Simla pact, which provides for a framework for addressing bilateral issues, has ?worked?. When asked why Delhi would not accept mediation when it had been successful in West Asia (Middle East to the Western countries), Singh?s brusque reply was: ?Middle East is not India and India is not Middle East.? He also dismissed the suggestion that India was reluctant to allow mediation because it had something to hide. ?We have nothing to hide,? the minister retorted. Singh reiterated during the interview that after Kargil, it was up to Islamabad to restore a modicum of trust and goodwill. He described the intrusion by Pakistan as a violation of bilateral pacts and said Islamabad had to give up support to cross-border terrorism. Pakistan has said resumption of talks and resolving the Kashmir issue is vital for the restoration of ?trust?. In an apparent reaction to Jaswant Singh?s statement that talks cannot be resumed unless trust is restored, Pakistani foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmed said in Jeddah today: ?Until there is headway in resolving the Kashmir issue, the element of confidence and trust will remain a far cry and an illusion. Confidence building measures cannot be created in vacuum.? Ahmed, who is accompanying Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his four-day visit to Saudi Arabia, expressed the hope that India would show readiness to resume the Lahore process. Singh said yesterday that Pakistan?s backing of intruders in Kargil led to a ?betrayal of trust?. Ahmed was quoted as saying that Sharif had hoped India would promote the cause of peace and stability, ?but India had not responded positively to Pakistan?s offer of peaceful resolution of disputes?. The foreign secretary claimed India had sent an emissary to Pakistan several times during the Kargil war to ?pursue the informal talks channel?. Sharif tried to drum up support for Pakistan?s Kashmir campaign in Saudi Arabia, saying the Gulf nation was playing an important role in the matter. ?Saudi Arabia has an important role in resolving the Kashmir problem and we stayed in close contact with it in the last period,? he said in an obvious reference to Kargil. IMF loan delay Pakistan suffered a setback as the International Monetary Fund held back the latest instalment of a $ 1.8-billion loan to Pakistan, citing delay in implementing promised economic reforms, according to The News. Pakistani finance minister Ishaq Dar left for Washington on Sunday for talks with senior IMF officials about the much-needed loan.